Property grab: AFP smashes alleged $10 billion Chinese money-laundering operation

, who was sensationally jailed in Macau last week after being exposed in Australian media reports and casino commissions of inquiry as having links to money laundering and organised crime.

Federal agents have also seized a 360-hectare plot of land in Cawdor, near Camden, which Ma bought for $47 million in August. Police intelligence suggests the syndicate had aspirations to develop the land into a small suburb, given its proximity to the planned Western Sydney international airport. The alleged role of a lawyer and migration agent, Chang Hong Liu, and an accountant, Raymond Luo, in the Xin MLO’s operation, as well as its property purchases, will ramp up pressure on the federal government to introduce long-stalled “Tranche 2” laws. The laws would force accountants, real estate agents and lawyers to face the same obligations as bankers and casinos to report suspected money laundering.

The AFP alleges Xin, who fled China, where he is wanted for running an illegal gambling enterprise, obtained Australian citizenship and partnered with Chinese businessman Zhouhua Ma to provide this service. Police allege these ghost accounts or shelf companies would then move the funds onto the criminal syndicates that had provided the original funds.

While the syndicate engaged in counter-surveillance, including the use of encrypted phone devices, the federal police gradually built a picture of its operations in Australia and overseas. The Commonwealth Bank declined Tara Global’s $11 million loan application as it appeared suspicious, so the figures behind Tara Global contacted an alleged trusted insider at NAB, Chen Zhang. He gave them advice about making a fresh application with another financier, Latrobe Finance.

“This was a sophisticated, complex syndicate established to facilitate the movement of funds regardless of their origin, purpose or harm caused to the Australian community,” Assistant Commissioner Schofield said.

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